Grants to prep low-income pupils

By Cara Solomon
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

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Nearly 90 schools across Washington state will get federal funds to prepare low-income students for a rigorous high-school and college curriculum, state education officials said yesterday.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction released a list of 40 school districts to receive grants, including Yakima, Spokane, Mount Vernon, Aberdeen and Federal Way.

The money is from the U.S. Department of Education Advanced Placement Incentive Program, designed to raise expectations and standards for low-income students across the country.

The biggest predictor of college success is the rigor of a student's high-school curriculum, government studies have indicated. And yet low-income students are not always exposed to tough courses nor encouraged to take them.

The AP incentive program is focused this year on putting "pre-AP" programs in some of the highest-poverty middle and junior-high schools. Pre-AP courses stress critical thinking, study skills and the mastery of a subject.

More students taking AP exams From 1999 to 2003, the number of students taking an Advanced Placement exam has dramatically increased among Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans, according to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Statewide, the number of students taking AP exams increased from 10,120 to 18,251. The number of Hispanic students taking an AP test has increased from 283 to 736; the number of African-American students taking a test has gone from 186 to 365; the number of Asian-American students taking a test increased from 1,452 to 2,684; and the number of Native American students taking a test has gone from 76 to 124.

Districts may use the federal grant money for teacher training, curriculum development and parent outreach, among other things.

In the Puget Sound area, Federal Way was the biggest winner. It received grants for three separate projects. Karen Dickinson, assistant director of curriculum for the district, said the money is likely to go toward training math teachers in sixth through 10th grades.

Last year, the district used grants from the federal program to train all of its language-arts teachers in those grades. Some of those teachers are now leading pre-AP courses this year, while others have slipped the strategies into their regular classes. Pam Freelund, an English and history teacher at Lakota Middle School, put her training to work this year in a class that includes honors students and students with learning deficits. A teacher for 16 years, Freelund said she has used discussions about poetry, photographs and posters to get all of her students thinking in a critical manner.

"Most of them have really risen to the occasion," said Freelund. "It's an approach that allows everyone to be successful and keys in on skills the kids didn't know they had."

State school districts to get grants For a complete list of state school districts that received grants under the AP Incentive Program, go to www.k12.wa.us

Dickinson said the AP incentive program fits in neatly with Federal Way's mission to increase participation in high-level courses among students of color. A few years ago, a task force on student achievement noted that the college-level classrooms did not reflect the diversity of the district.

"We had to ask ourselves the question: Why aren't these children in our classrooms?" said Dickinson. "We really felt from our end that we were not doing all we should do to support them."

Since then, the district has launched an ambitious program to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color, who are disproportionately touched by poverty. By training all teachers in pre-AP strategies, Dickinson said the district is giving every student exposure to high-level thinking, regardless of whether they are enrolled in a pre-AP course or not.

But the goal is to get students to at least try AP coursework in high school, Dickinson said.

Since 1999, when the AP incentive program began, the state has also focused more on that goal of getting low-income students into high-level courses. In the past several years, with the help of federal grants, some progress has been made.

Participation by Hispanic students in AP test-taking has increased 160 percent; among African Americans by 96 percent; and in the Native American population by 63 percent.

The numbers are still small. And not all of the students pass the test. But Dickinson said the grade does not matter nearly as much as the exposure to high expectations and higher-level thinking.

"Sometimes it takes longer for a student to click in," said Dickinson. "We're going to hang in until they do."

Cara Solomon: 206-464-2024 or csolomon@seattletimes.com

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